The Tabernacle of Legion

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

This prototype sci-fi thriller has a lot going on at the same time that eventually melds into one innovative story. In my opinion, Kevin Schillo’s first novel is a big-time success. I couldn’t resolve what concept I liked the best; is it: the awakening of a 70,000 year old being who was found frozen in a block of ice in the Antarctica, or the discovery of a three billion year old alien artifact buried in a asteroid, or the eventual meeting of these two events? Based on the author’s credentials in aerospace engineering, the technical aspect of the story was smooth as ice (no pun intended). He didn’t frustrate the reader with a lot of technical jargon (that) the reader wouldn’t understand anyway. So I’ll review the very early stages of these happenings in order to whet your appetite for this novel.    

First, the 70,000 year old being. At Niflheim Research Station, Antarctica: Paul Kivi, a climatologist, finds a block of ice containing a man later determined to be 70,000 years old. Anna Landes, chief physician and biochemist at Niflheim, names the specimen Ask, who according to Norse mythology, is the mate of Embla.  On page 38, Anna says, “There’s no trace of ice crystals anywhere in the tissue sample that I took. His cells are completely intact.” That’s not possible since, “when human tissue is frozen, ice crystals form within the cells and destroy the cells’ integrity.” She later says, “He seems to possess antifreeze proteins. Various species of fish and insects have such proteins that allow them to survive in frigid environments without having ice crystals form in their cells. Seeing this in a human is the most amazing thing I’ve ever observed.” Does Anna make a regretful mistake by saying, “I’m going to perform an autopsy.”? You must read the novel to find out what happens during and after the autopsy, but later in the book, the reader learns that Legion (who or what is that?) was responsible for Ask’s imprisonment in the ice. “Ask knew that Legion had directly intervened with baseline (human) history at least once, and that had been millennia ago when they had given him his nanomachines. It was an incredible gift. In addition to enabling him to change his appearance and probe baselines’ minds, the nanomachines also altered his physiology, allowing him to heal from any injury, immunized him against any disease, kept his body perpetually young, and permitted him to survive in hostile environments ranging from barren deserts to the frozen wastes of the polar ice caps. The gift effectively made Ask immortal.” Are you interested yet? How does Ask tie into the alien artifact story? Why was he buried here on Earth 70,000 years ago? What would you do after a 70 millennium sleep? Would you be grumpy?

Okay, what about the three billion year old alien artifact? Miles Gilster, Founder of IE (Interplanetary Enterprises), is the richest man on earth. He runs an asteroid mining company that mines precious metals, such as gold, silver, platinum, cobalt, nickel and iridium. He does this by having robotic miners excavate the metals off asteroids. The miners are self replicating and even build the transporters that bring the treasure back to Earth. Miles also runs tours from the Earth to the moon and back with the capacity to billet five space tourists, who spend a week at IE’s facility and on the lunar surface. His best astronaut, Mark de Rijk, commands the moon tour ship. Miles is in the process of building the world’s first fusion propulsion spacecraft meant to carry tourist to Mars and back in record time (and for record profits). Government space agencies around the world combined to have a joint exploratory base on Mars, but transportation to Mars and back via the two Cycler spacecraft (the Aldrin and the Armstrong) took five months to get there and eight months to get back to Earth. Recently, IE had a new miner land on an asteroid that has never been mined. Desmond Berens of IE was observing the miner's progress and suddenly realized “that the miner had not been able to penetrate through an inch of rock in more than three hours.” Alexis Razol, the only other employee in the room, asked, “Is there a problem with it?” Desmond said, “No...everything is working perfectly fine. It’s just not able to get through the material that it’s encountered.” They are positive there is nothing wrong with drills. The miner’s sensors cannot determine what it’s trying to drill through. “Alexis pulled up a video feed, showing the miner at the bottom of the shaft it had dug in the asteroid.” It could drill no further, whatever it was appeared to absorb all light. “In fact, it doesn’t seem to be emitting or reflecting any detectable electromagnetic radiation.” That’s why it’s so black. “All indications are that it is absorbing 100% of incoming radiation.” On page 26, Alexis tells Desmond that the black thing is artificial. “Okay,” Desmond said slowly. “So it’s artificial. The question is: who put it there? And why?” After Miles Gilster  sees what’s happening with the miner on the asteroid, he says, “You found a fucking alien artifact!” What’s going to happen now?

I was reminded of Arthur C. Clarke’s 1968 sci-fi novel 2001: A Space Odyssey while I was reading this novel, which by the way, is also mentioned in Kevin Schillo’s book by one of his characters. Was the artifact found on the asteroid a beacon to start life like the monoliths in Clarke’s novel? Or was it something foreboding? Or something else? You have 361 exciting pages to find all the answers...or will the author keep you guessing? The author’s prose was developed enough for the reader to have empathy for all the characters. But the author saved his best writing for the conversation between IE’S atheist astronaut, Mark de Rijk, and his parish priest brother, David, during the time they spent together discussing how the finding of an alien artifact would affect the world’s religions. That was very introspective. Good job of storytelling. The last 54 pages of this thriller are electric...well worth the price of admission in itself!

RATING: 5 out of 5 stars

Comment: In the acknowledgements, the author thanks four people who supported an endeavor he pursued during a trying period in his life. All four friends are namesakes in Kevin’s novel: Mark de Rijk, Adam Hernandez, Miles Gilster and Jedediah Storey. Through a email, the author assures me that he is currently writing the sequel to The Tabernacle of Legion. He states that he will answer all the unanswered questions in that sequel. I hope so, because I have a lot to ask.

This was one of the best indie books (that) I’ve ever read...bar none. It’s the kind of novel that would be picked by Hollywood had it been published by a major house. I’m reminded of one of my favorite sci-fi novels that started out as a indie, later published by Simon & Schuster with the film rights sold to 20th Century Fox. What is this novel? It’s Hugh Howey’s 2011 novel, Wool (see my review of 1/21/2016). So there you go, Mr. Kevin Schillo...it can be done. Now, if you are wondering about the next novel in this series...does We're off to see the Wizard ring a bell?